Great pic of the Colonel. You should share it on the weekly Kitty thread.
Evening Grace Folks~
McCormick’s Creek State Park, Indiana
Indiana Facts and Trivia
1. The first long-distance auto race in the U. S. was held May 30, 1911, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The winner averaged 75 miles an hour and won a 1st place prize of $14,000. Today the average speed is over 167 miles an hour and the prize is more than $1.2 million. Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the site of the greatest spectacle in sports, the Indianapolis 500. The Indianapolis 500 is held every Memorial Day weekend in the Hoosier capital city. The race is 200 laps or 500 miles long.
2. Abraham Lincoln moved to Indiana when he was 7 years old. He lived most of his boyhood life in Spencer County with his parents Thomas and Nancy.
3. Explorers Lewis and Clark set out from Fort Vincennes on their exploration of the Northwest Territory.
4. The movie "Hard Rain" was filmed in Huntingburg.
5. During WWII the P-47 fighter-plane was manufactured in Evansville at Republic Aviation.
6. Marcella Gruelle of Indianapolis created the Raggedy Ann doll in 1914.
7. The first professional baseball game was played in Fort Wayne on May 4, 1871.
8. James Dean, a popular movie star of the 1950s in such movies as "East of Eden" and "Rebel without a Cause", was born February 8, 1941, in Marion. He died in an auto crash at age 24.
9. David Letterman, host of television's "Late Show with David Letterman," was born April 12, 1947, in Indianapolis.
10. Santa Claus, Indiana receives over one half million letters and requests at Christmas time.
11. Crawfordsville is the home of the only known working rotary jail in the United States. The jail with its rotating cellblock was built in 1882 and served as the Montgomery County jail until 1972. It is now a museum.
12. Historic Parke County has 32 covered bridges and is the Covered Bridge Capital of the world.
13. True to its motto, "Cross Roads of America" Indiana has more miles of Interstate Highway per square mile than any other state. The Indiana state Motto, can be traced back to the early 1800s. In the early years river traffic, especially along the Ohio, was a major means of transportation. The National Road, a major westward route, and the north-south Michigan Road crossed in Indianapolis. Today more major highways intersect in Indiana than in any other state.
14. Most of the state's rivers flow south and west, eventually emptying into the Mississippi. However, the Maumee flows north and east into Lake Erie. Lake Wawasee is the states largest natural lake.
15. Indiana's shoreline with Lake Michigan is only 40 miles long, but Indiana is still considered a Great Lakes State.
16. More than 100 species of trees are native to Indiana. Before the pioneer's arrive more than 80% of Indiana was covered with forest. Now only 17% of the state is considered forested.
17. Deep below the earth in Southern Indiana is a sea of limestone that is one of the richest deposits of top-quality limestone found anywhere on earth. New York City's Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center as well as the Pentagon, the U.S. Treasury, a dozen other government buildings in Washington D.C. as well as 14 state capitols around the nation are built from this sturdy, beautiful Indiana limestone.
18. Although Indiana means, "Land of the Indians" there are fewer than 8,000 Native Americans living in the state today.
19. The first European known to have visited Indiana was French Explorer Rene'-Robert Cavalier sierur de La Salle, in 1679. After LaSalle and others explored the Great Lakes region, the land was claimed for New France, a nation based in Canada.
20. In the 1700s the first 3 Non-native American settlements in Indiana were the 3 French forts of Ouiatenon, Ft. Miami, and Ft. Vincennes. Although they had few settlers in the region, French presence in Indiana lasted almost 100 years. After the British won the French and Indian War, and upon the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the French surrendered their claims to the lower Great Lakes region.
21. Indiana was part of the huge Northwest Territory, which included present day Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin, which were ceded to the United States by the British at the end of the Revolutionary war.
22. Ft. Wayne, Indiana's 2nd Largest city, had its beginnings in 1794, after the Battle of Fallen Timbers, when General "Mad Anthony" Wayne built Ft. Wayne on the site of a Miami Indian village.
23. Many Mennonite and Amish live on the farmland of Northeastern Indiana. One of the United States largest Mennonite congregations is in Bern. According to Amish ordnung (rules) they are forbidden to drive cars, use electricity, or go to public places of entertainment.
24. At one time Studebaker Company of South Bend was the nation's largest producer of horse-drawn wagons. It later developed into a multimillion-dollar automobile manufacturer.
25. In Fort Wayne, Syvanus F. Bower designed the world's first practical gasoline pump.
26. Indianapolis grocer Gilbert Van Camp discovered his customers enjoyed an old family recipe for pork and beans in tomato sauce. He opened up a canning company and Van Camp's Pork and Beans became an American staple.
27. Muncie's Ball State University was built mostly from funds contributed by the founders of the Ball Corporation, a company than made glass canning jars.
28. Thomas Hendricks, a Democrat from Shelbyville, served Indiana as a United States Senator, a United States representative, governor, and as Vice President under Grover Cleveland. Indiana has been the home of 5 vice presidents and one president.
29. Peru Indiana was once known as the "Circus Capital of America".
30. Indiana University's greatest swimmer was Mark Spitz, who won 7 gold medals in the 1972 Olympic games. No other athlete has won so many gold medals in a single year.
31. In 1934 Chicago Gangster John Dillinger escaped the Lake Country Jail in Crown Point by using a "pistol" he had carved from a wooden block.
32. Before Indianapolis, Corydon served as the state's capitol from 1816-1825. Vincennes was the capital when Indiana was a territory.
33. East Race Waterway, in south Bend, is the only man-made white-water raceway in North America.
34. In 1862, Richard Gatling, of Indianapolis, invented the rapid-fire machine gun.
35. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was organized in Terre Haute in 1881.
36. Sarah Walker, who called herself Madame J.C. Walker, became one of the nation's first woman millionaires. In 1905 Sarah Breedlove McWilliams Walker developed a conditioning treatment for straightening hair. Starting with door-to-door sales of her cosmetics, Madame C.J. Walker amassed a fortune.
37. From 1900 to 1920 more than 200 different makes of cars were produced in the Hoosier State. Duesenbergs, Auburns, Stutzes, and Maxwells - are prize antiques today.
38. The Indiana Gazette Indiana's first newspaper was published in Vincennes in 1804.
39. The state constitution of 1816 directed the legislature to establish public schools, but it was not until the 1850s that state government was able to establish a public school system.
40. Before public schools families pitched in to build log schoolhouse and each student's family paid a few dollars toward the teachers salaries.
41. At one time 12 different stagecoach lines ran through Indiana on the National Road. (Now U.S. Interstate 40)
42. In the 1830s canals were dug linking the Great Lakes to Indiana's river systems. The canals proved to be a financial disaster. Railroads made the canal system obsolete even before its completions.
43. Indiana's first major railroad line linked Madison and Indianapolis and was completed in 1847.
44. The farming community of Fountain City in Wayne County was known as the "Grand Central Station of the Underground Railroad." In the years before the civil war, Levi and Katie Coffin were famous agents on the Underground Railroad. They estimated that they provided overnight lodging for more than 2,000 runaway slaves who were making their way north to Canada and freedom.
45. During the great Depression of the 1930's 1 in every 4 Hoosier factory hands was out of work, farmers sank deeper in debt, and in southern Indiana unemployment was as high as 50%.
46. In the summer of 1987 4,453 athletes from 38 nations gathered in Indianapolis for the Pan American Games.
47. The Saturday Evening Post is published in Indianapolis.
48. Comedian Red Skelton, who created such characters as Clem Kadiddlehopper, and Freddie the Freeloader, was born in Vincennes.
49. The Poet Laureate of Indiana, James Whitcomb Riley was born in a two-room log cabin in Greenfield. He glorified his rural Indiana childhood in such poems as "The Old Swimmin' Hole" "Little Orphant Annie", and " When the frost is on the Pumpkin".
50. Albert Beveridge won the Pulitzer Prize in biography in 1920, for The Life of John Marshall. In 1934 Harold Urey won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his discovery of deuterium. Ernie Pyle won the Pulitzer Prize in foreign Correspondence in 1944. Paul Samuelson won the Nobel Prize in economics, 1970.
51. The name “hoosier” dates back to the first colonists of Indiana. In celebration of finding new territory with rich farming soil, they threw a big party. The men got so drunk they started biting off each other’s ear. The next morning the men were seen walking around looking down at the ground and saying, “whose ear?”
On This day in history
Birthdates which occurred on February 03:
1368 Charles VI King of France (1380-1422)
1805 Otto T Freiherr von Manteuffel premier Prussia
1807 Joseph E Johnston General (Commander army of Tennessee)
1809 Felix Mendelssohn, German composer and pianist (Overture to a Midsummer Night's Dream).
1811 Horace Greeley editor ("Go west, young man")
1817 Samuel Ryan Curtis Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1866
1820 Elisha Kent Kane US arctic explorer (Kane Basin off NW Greenland)
http://www.ekkane.org/Biographies/BioKane.htm
1821 Elizabeth Blackwell Bristol England, 1st woman physician
1823 Spencer F Baird US biologist (Wood's Hole Station)
1824 George Thomas "Tige" Anderson Brigadier General (Confederate Army)
http://www.civilwarweb.com/articles/09-99/tige.htm
1824 Nathan George "Shanks" Evans Brigadier General (Confederacy), died in 1868
1831 Cyrus Ballou Comstock Brevet Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1910
1874 Gertrude Stein Pennsylvania, author (Autobiography of Alice B Toklas)
1883 Clarence Mulford Illinois, western writer (Hopalong Cassidy)
1890 Heinrich Barth Swiss philosopher (Problem des Bösen)
1894 Norman Rockwell US, artist/illustrator (Sat Evening Post covers)
1904 Charlie "Pretty Boy" Floyd (Oklahoma knew him well)
http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters/prettyboy/
1907 James A Michener New York NY, writer (Tales of the South Pacific, Centennial, Chesapeake, Hawaii, Space)
1918 Joey Bishop [Gottlieb], Bronx, comedian/talk show host (Joey Bishop Show)
1922 Jean-Pierre Rampal flutist (Italian Flute Concertos)
1926 Arthur Arfons auto racer/designer (Green Monster 1964-536.71 MPH)
1926 Shelley Berman Chicago IL, actor/comedian (Son of the Blob, Love American Style)
1935 Johnny "Guitar" Watson rock guitarist
1940 Fran Tarkenton Richmond VA, NFL quarterback (New York Giants, Minnesota Vikings)
1945 Bob Griese NFL quarterback (Miami Dolphins, 1971 Player of Year)
1947 Dave Davies London, rock vocalist/guitarist (Kinks-Lola)
1950 Morgan Fairchild [Patsy McClenny], Dallas TX, actress (Falcon Crest, Flamingo Road)
1958 Joe Frank Edwards Jr Richmond VA, Commander USN/astronaut (STS 89)
Deaths which occurred on February 03:
0474 Leo I Byzantine Emperor (457-74), dies
1399 John of Gaunt duke of Lancaster/king of Castile & León, dies at 58
1451 Murad II sultan of Turkey (1421-51), dies
1558 Alfonsus de Castro Spanish theologist (council of Trente), dies
1832 George Crabbe English vicar/poet (Borough), dies at 77
1889 Belle Starr (Myra Maybelle Shirley) US female gangster, murdered at 40
http://www.frontiertimes.com/outlaws/belle_starr.html 1909 Johann Georg Herzog composer, dies at 86
1924 Woodrow Wilson 28th President (1913-21), dies at his home in Washington at 67
1945 Roland Freisler German Nazi judge (July 20th plotter case), dies
1958 Henry Kuttner sci-fi author (Dark World, As You Were), dies at 42
1959 The Big Bopper [Jiles Perry Richardson] rocker (Chantilly Lace), dies in a plane crash in Iowa at 28
1959 Buddy Holly rocker (That'll be the Day), dies in a plane crashi Iowa at 22
1959 Richie Valens rock vocalist (Donna, La Bamba), killed in plane crash in Iowa at 17
1989 John Cassavetes actor/director (Husbands, Dirty Dozen), dies at 59
1991 Nancy Kulp actress (Jane Hathaway-Beverly Hillbillies), dies at 69
1996 Audrey Meadows actress (Alice-Honeymooners), dies at 69
1997 William Geoffrey Biddle bomb disposal expert, dies at 79
1998 Karla Faye Tucker murderer, executed at 38
Take A Moment To Remember
GWOT Casualties
Iraq
03-Feb-2004 1 | US: 1 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US 2nd Lieutenant Seth J. Dvorin Iskandariyah (near) - Babil Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
03-Feb-2005 3 | US: 3 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Sergeant Stephen R. Sherman Mosul (south of) - Ninawa Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Sergeant 1st Class Sean Michael Cooley Babil Province (northern part) Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Lance Corporal Richard C. Clifton Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire
Afghanistan
02/03/05 Vianini, Bruno Commander 41 Italy Italian Defense General Staff Interforces Command, Special Operations Forces Non-hostile - airplane crash Between Herat to Kabul La Spezia
http://icasualties.org/oif/ Data research by Pat Kneisler
Designed and maintained by Michael White
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Go here and I'll stop nagging.
http://soldiersangels.org/heroes/index.php
On this day...
1160 Emperor Frederick Barbarossa hurtles prisoners, including children, at the Italian city of Crema, forcing its surrender.
1238 The Mongols take over Vladimir, Russia
1377 Cardinal Robert of Geneva (anti-pope Clemens VII) starts term
1377 Mass execution of population of Cesena Italy
1547 Russian czar Ivan IV (17) marries Anastasia Romanova
1576 Henry of Navarre (future Henry IV) escapes from Paris
1591 German monarchy forms Protestant Union of Torgau
1690 1st paper money in America issued (colony of Massachusetts)
1740 Charles de Bourbon, King of Naples, invites Jews to return to Sicily
1743 Philadelphia establishes a "pesthouse" to quarantine immigrants
1752 Dutch States-General forbid export of windmills
1783 Spain recognizes US independence
1809 Territory of Illinois organizes (including present-day Wisconsin)
1815 World's 1st commercial cheese factory established, in Switzerland
1836 Whig Party holds its 1st national convention (Albany NY)
http://www.earlyrepublic.net/whigs.htm http://moa.cit.cornell.edu/moa/browse.journals/amwh.html 1855 Wisconsin Supreme Court declares US Fugitive Slave Law unconstitutional
1867 Prince Mutsuhito, 14, becomes Emperor Meiji of Japan (1867-1912)
1870 15th Amendment (Black suffrage) passed
1876 Albert Spalding with $800 starts sporting goods company, manufacturing 1st official baseball, tennis ball, basketball, golf ball, & football
1882 Circus owner PT Barnum buys his world famous elephant Jumbo
1887 To avoid disputed national elections, Congress creates Electoral Count Act
1894 1st US steel sailing vessel, Dirigo, launched, Bath ME
1899 -16º F, Minden LA (state record)
1908 Supreme Court rules a union boycott violates Sherman Antitrust Act
1913 16th Amendment, federal income tax, ratified
1916 Canada's original Parliament building, in Ottawa, burns down
1917 US liner Housatonic sunk by German sub & diplomatic relations severed
1919 League of Nations 1st meeting (Paris)
1919 Socialist conference convenes (Berne Switzerland)
1924 Alexei Ryko elected as President of People's commission (succeeds Lenin)
1930 William Howard Taft, resigns as chief justice for health reasons
1930 Vietnamese Communist Party forms
1931 Arkansas legislature passes motion to pray for soul of H L Mencken after he calls the state the "apex of moronia"
1941 Supreme Court upheld Federal Wage & Hour law, sets minimum wages & maximum hours
1942 1st Japanese air raid on Java
1942 Baseball owners agree to permit each club up to 14 night games in 1942
1943 4 chaplains drown after giving up their life jackets to others
1945 Walt Disney's "The 3 Caballeros" released
1945 Almost 1000 Flying Fortresses drop 3000 ton bombs on Berlin
(David Webster: [at a passing column of German prisoners] Hey, you! That's right, you stupid Kraut bastards. That's right. Say hello to Ford, and General f*ckin' Motors. You stupid fascist pigs. Look at you. You have horses. What were you thinking? Dragging our asses half way around the world, interrupting our lives. For what, you ignorant, servile scum.)
1947 -81ºF, Snag Yukon (North American record)
1950 Nuclear physicist Klaus Fuchs arrested on spy charges
1951 Largest purse to date in horse racing, $144,323, won by Great Circle
1953 J Fred Muggs, a chimp, becomes a regular on NBC's Today Show
(J Fred has since been replaced by the perky one...this is several steps down the evolutionary ladder)
1957 Patty Berg win LPGA Havana Golf Open
1958 Royal Teens' "Short Shorts" enters Top 40 chart & peaks at #3
1959 The day he music died
1962 President Kennedy bans all trade with Cuba except for food & drugs
1964 "Meet the Beatles" album goes Gold
1965 Orbiting Solar Observatory 2 launches into Earth orbit (552/636 km)
1965 105 USAF cadets resigned for cheating on exams
1966 1st soft landing on the Moon (Soviet Luna 9)
1967 "Purple Haze" recorded by Jimi Hendrix
1969 The Palestine National Congress appointed Yasser Arafat head of PLO
1973 Dr Hook's "Cover of "Rolling Stone" enters Top 40 & peaks at #6
1973 President Nixon signs Endangered Species Act into law
1979 Minnesota Twin trade Rod Carew to California for 4 players
1979 "YMCA" by Village People peaks at #2 on pop singles chart
1980 Muhammed Ali tours Africa as President Carter's envoy
1980 Larry Holmes TKOs Lorenzo Holmes in 6 for heavyweight boxing title
1982 Greatest helicopter lift, 56,888 kg, Podmoscovnoe, USSR
1984 1st baby conceived by embryo transplant born in Long Beach CA
1987 San Diego Yacht Club celebrates return of America's Cup
1989 Military coup overthrows Alfredo Stroessner, dictator of Paraguay
1990 Jockey Billy Shoemaker (58), retires after 40,350 horse races
1990 New York Met Darryl Strawberry voluntarily enters Smither Center for Alcohol rehabilitation..again..and again...and again
1993 Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott suspended for 1 year due to racist comments
1993 Federal trial of 4 police officers charged with civil rights violations in videotaped beating of Rodney King begins in Los Angeles CA
1994 President Bill Clinton lifts US trade embargo against Vietnam
1998 US military plane clips cable car lines in northern Italy, kills 20
2003 Phil Spector (62), rock-n-roll producer, was arrested in LA for murder after Lana Clarkson (40) was found dead in his mansion.
2004 Oregon voters rejected $800 million in tax increases setting up a new round of cuts in services. (Sun raises in the east, children laugh, people go to work,...)
Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
Japan : Bean throwing Festival/Setsubun (last day of lunar calendar winter)
Paraguay : Patron's Day/San Blas, patrón
Puerto Rico : Fiesta de San Blas, protector of harvest (316)
Switzerland : Homstrom-celebrates end of winter ( Sunday )
US : Crime Prevention Week (Day 4)
US : 4 Chaplains Memorial Day
US : Flush Toilet Day
US : Muffin Mania Week (All Hail the mighty MUFFIN)
Community College Month
Religious Observances
Roman Catholic : Memorial of St Blase, bishop of Sebaste, Armenia, martyr (opt)
Christian : Feast of St Laurentius, 2nd archbishop of Canterbury (604-619)
Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran : Memorial of Anskar, Hamburg archbishop, Denmark/Sweden
Religious History
1518 Pope Leo X imposed silence on the Augustinian monks.
1744 Colonial missionary to the American Indians David Brainerd explained in a tract: 'God designs that those whom He sanctifies...shall tarry awhile in this present evil world, that their own experience of temptations may teach them how great the deliverance is, which God has wrought for them.'
1864 In Columbus, Ohio, a fellowship of independent Methodist, Presbyterian, Congregational and United Brethren churches organized itself into a separate Protestant denomination known as the Christian Union.
1943 The Allied troopship S.S. Dorchester was torpedoed by a German sub and went down with a loss of 600 lives. As it sank, four chaplains gave up their lifejackets to shipmates, thereby also perishing in the icy waters. The bravery of Rev. Clark Poling (Dutch Reformed), Rev. George Lansing Fox (Methodist), Father John Washington (a Catholic priest) and Alexander David Goode (a Jewish rabbi) led Congress afterward to mark February 3rd as "Four Chaplains Day."
1985 In South Africa, Desmond Tutu, 53, became Johannesburg's first black Anglican bishop.
Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.
Thought for the day :
"The reason why so few good books are written is that so few people who write know anything."
Walter Bagehot
and this.
I heard a story about a small church that was having a reunion. A former member who attended the celebration had become a millionaire. When he testified about how God had blessed him over the years, he related an incident from his childhood.